Clarendon Building

Heritage attraction

Explorer Tom

The Clarendon Building plants a grand stone face on Broad Street in Oxford, looking as if it has just ordered every book in the city to stand up straight. That is fitting: this was once the university's printing house, and the broad steps, columns and central arch still make an entrance with a magnificent sense of its own importance. Built in the early 1710s, the building was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and paid for from profits connected to Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon's history of the English Civil War. Oxford University Press worked here until its move to Walton Street in 1832. The Grade I listed frontage belongs to a cluster of remarkable neighbours, including the Sheldonian Theatre, so give yourself time to look up rather than marching past with your nose in a map. The sculptural company overhead has a story too. Lead figures of the Muses were set on the roof in 1717, while a figure of Lord Clarendon later occupied a niche. The figures have undergone conservation work, so do not promise yourself that every one will be in position on the day you arrive. What remains certain is the building's strong stone outline and its place in Oxford's publishing history. See the exterior from Broad Street and the surrounding public streets. Oxford University lists the building as offices for the proctors and Bodleian Libraries; the Bodleian's public visitor programme covers other buildings, so treat this as an outdoor architectural stop rather than an indoor tour. Come for the old printing house, then let its stern columns judge the size of your book pile.